"...Burn Everlasting Sins."
Jay stood over the possessed form of Lavinia, his eyes reflecting a darkness that seemed to swallow the moonlight. The incantation had left his lips like a death sentence, a soft whisper that carried the weight of a thousand judgments.
In an instant the world went silent. A geyser of black flames erupted from Jay's outstretched hand, cascading over Lavinia's body like a waterfall of ink.
It was a terrifying sight as a girl engulfed in fire so black it did not even emit any light, yet there was no sound of crackling wood, no hiss of steam, and no stench of burning flesh. The flames behaved like a sentient liquid, swirling around her slender form with a grace that defied the laws of thermodynamics.
Jay watched with narrow eyes. He could feel the True Cross vibrating within his soul. During his desperate struggle against Berjequel, he had acted on pure survival instinct, but now, in the chilling clarity of this moment, he understood the fundamental truth of this power: The True Cross did not just burn everything in the world blindly, it burn everything at will.
Beneath his boots, the delicate frost on the grass remained frozen.
The hem of Lavinia's dress wasn't even singed. The black fire was conceptually isolated, a scalpel of divine retribution designed to excise the rot without harming the host. It's almost like the flame itself did not radiate heat but cold, the numbing cold of the void.
But to Augusta the flame engulfing Lavinia could be felt reducing her to ash.
The Witch of the East didn't just scream.
Inside Lavinia's mind, the witch felt the black flames not as a physical heat, but as a soul destroying heat.
Her hold on the young woman's soul was being stripped away layer by layer. In a panicked surge of ego, Augusta realized she could no longer hold Lavinia's body.
Driven by a mix of survival instinct and pure hatred towards Jay, she is planning to made a final reckless gamble.
If she couldn't have the girl, she would take the man in front of her.
As the black flames forced her out, Augusta's essence manifested as a jagged obsidian orb.
It tore through the spiritual veil, erupting from Lavinia's back. For a split second, she regained her physical form.
Lavinia lost her footing, but Jay caught her in time. With what remained of her consciousness, she looked up at him.
"Thank yo-"
Before she could finish, she slipped into unconsciousness in Jay's embrace.
Meanwhile Augusta is a writhing, shadowy mass of malice that hit the ground twenty feet away screaming in agony. But even as she suffered, she cast her consciousness forward, lashing out like a viper to possess Jay's mind.
She expected a standard human consciousness, after all no matter how strong he was, he is just human in the end.
Instead, the moment she breached Jay's "Inner World," Augusta's mind shattered.
The sky was not blue like human supposed to.
It was a bruised suffocating black, streaked with veins of luminescent red like a dying star. The ground beneath her was an endless expanse of ash and bone. All around her, she saw them thousands, perhaps millions of limbos. They weren't just dying, they were being tortured and perpetually unmade by the same black fire that had hunted her.
The air was thick with the cacophony of a million screams, a symphony of suffering that made her own crimes look like child's play.
"What is this...!?" she tried to scream, but she had no voice here.
Her gaze drifted to the horizon. In the distance stood a hill, bleak and lonely.
Atop it were three crosses. They were unmoving, unwavering monoliths against the chaotic red streaks of the sky. But it was the center cross that broke her spirit. It was gargantuan, a pillar of suffering that pierced the clouds.
It was so tall that its top was lost in the heavens, its base rooted in the very bedrock of this hellscape.
It wasn't just a mind. It was a graveyard of gods. It was a landscape of absolute uncompromising judgment.
Augusta's consciousness was violently ejected back into the waking world. She collapsed onto the dirt, her physical form flickering like a dying candle.
Her eyes, once filled with the arrogance of a magician that stood in the pinnacle of the magic world were now wide, dilated spheres of pure unadulterated terror.
Jay stood before her, his expression unreadable, holding the now-unconscious Lavinia in his embrace.
To Augusta, he no longer looked like a human. He looked like the herald of that towering cross, a fragment of that terrifying world made flesh.
She pointed a trembling finger at him, her voice a pathetic wheeze. "You! Who are you... what are you?"
Jay didn't answer.
A final, stray flicker of the black flame swept across Augusta's body. And in a silent flash, the Witch of the East was reduced to nothing. No ash, no residue, not even a lingering magical footprint. She was simply... gone.
Jay stared at the empty space where she had been, his breathing heavy and labored. The adrenaline was fading, replaced by a hollow, gnawing ache in his chest.
He looked down underneath his feet. The black flames were dimming, receding back into his skin, but the cost was staggering.
My mana... it's bottomed out, he realized.
The Balance Breaker, at least that's what he think True Cross is, it was a gluttonous beast. Even that brief activation had drained his reserves to the dregs. And even though he didn't use the black flame that match this time, it's still consume some initial cost to be activated and that activation cost that drained him so much this time.
He realized with a grim sort of humor that he was nowhere near ready to wield this power fully. If he tried to unleash this all-burning flame now, it would likely consume his own life force to oblivion just like when the first time he used it. He needed to complete the Anthem of Life before even dare going all out with this.
He looked at Lavinia. Her blonde hair was a mess, her skin pale and clammy. She was breathing, but barely. Augusta had used her life force as a battery for Absolute Demise's Balance Breaker.
'I can't heal this', Jay thought, his brow furrowing. Should I take her to Glenda? No, the teleportation might kill her in this state.
The decision was taken out of his hands. A ripple in space disturbed the silence, followed by the familiar intricate geometry of a teleportation circle. Jay shifted his stance, shielding Lavinia with his body before he realized who is coming from the familiar magical imprint.
Four figures stepped into the clearing.
Azazel, the Governor General of the Grigori stood at the front. Behind him were the members of the Slash Dog team, Tobio Ikuse, Natsume Minagawa, and Kouki Samejima. The teenagers looked like they had been through hell as their clothes were torn and bloodied bandages peeked through their sleeves.
"Look, it's Lavinia!" Tobio shouted as his hand instinctively moving toward his Sacred Gear. His eyes locked onto Jay, and his expression hardened. "But who is that man with her? Is he trying to abduct her?!"
"Hey, give Lavinia back!" Natsume demanded, her voice high with protective fury.
They moved to rush forward, but Azazel's arm shot out to stop them. The Fallen Angel's usual laid-back demeanor was gone, replaced by a sharp calculating intensity.
He was looking at the scorched earth.
The purple embers of the Incinerate Anthem clashing with the frozen grounds and tress from Absolute Demise.
"Wait," Azazel commanded.
He stepped forward followed by the three of them, his eyes moving from the unconscious girl to Jay.
He could still feel the phantom ache of the scar Jay had given him during their last encounter. He had underestimated this "human" once. He wouldn't make that mistake twice.
"I didn't know that we would be meeting again so soon, huh," Azazel said, his voice raspy but steady. Jay just watched him in silence.
.
Azazel didn't answer immediately. He surveyed the destruction, the shattered mountainside and the frozen trees that looked like glass sculptures. "I must say, you created such a mess here. I don't think the Five Principal Clans will be too happy with this. The magic fluctuation could be felt miles away."
"Governor General of Grigori," Jay interrupted, his eyes cold. "What do you want?"
"That lady over there... she is one of my acquaintances," Azazel said, gesturing toward Lavinia. "Can you explain to me what happened? And where is that witch, Augusta, anyway?"
"She is dead," Jay said. Plain and cold.
The silence that followed was heavy. Tobio and his teammates held their breath, their eyes wide. They knew how powerful Augusta was from Azazel, hearing that this lone stranger had ended her was a shock that hadn't quite processed yet.
Azazel's mind was racing. 'Vali... you didn't tell me your friend was also a Longinus user.' He recognized the purple embers. There was only one thing in existence that produced that particular shade of destruction, the Incinerate Anthem.
"Then... what do you want with our little princess over there?" Azazel asked, his voice softening slightly.
Jay looked down at Lavinia. "Augusta took her body and activated the Balance Breaker. She is in severe lack of life force right now.."
The members of Slash Dog gasped. Azazel's expression darkened. 'So not only he fought Augusta while she was using Lavinia's body... He also fighting her while she was using her Balance Breaker and still won?' He thought.
Jay then walked forward, carrying Lavinia in a princess-style hold, and stopped a few feet from Azazel. The tension was palpable, Tobio looked ready to draw his blade at the slightest movement, but Jay just held the girl out.
Azazel inspected her pulse and the flow of her remaining mana. He nodded grimly. "You're right. She almost got drained to death. How was Augusta able to even do that...?"
"It's a branch of Darkness magic regarding the souls," Jay explained. "A forbidden magic."
"Souls, huh?" Azazel muttered, his curiosity piqued despite the gravity of the situation.
Tobio in worry then asked Azazel. " Governor General, is Lavinia okay? "
" She still live but she needs treatment as soon as possible. " Azazel explained. He then looked at Jay. " Look... "
"Zayyn," Jay said, finally offering his name.
"Zayyn," Azazel repeated, testing the weight of it. "I don't know what relationship you have with Lavinia, but she is our friend. Let me bring her to the Grigori to treat her. You can also come if you want. We have the facilities there."
Jay contemplating should he gave Lavinia to him or not, but he realized that he doesn't even know Lavinia like that. And he also doesn't have any means to heal her at this moment on top of that, so... Jay then looked at the three human teenagers behind Azazel, he didn't trust Azazel but he believe that this is the best decision for now.
Jay then nodded and decided to give the unconscious Lavinia to Azazel.
"I'm good for now. But I need to talk with Lavinia when she wakes up so i'll find you later."
"Fair enough. Should I notify Vali?"
"No," Jay said sharply. "Don't tell him about me."
Before handing her over, Jay closed his eyes. He channeled a tiny, precise sliver of his remaining mana into Lavinia. Not to heal her, but to act as a coordinate to teleport later.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a standard, slightly cracked smartphone. "Also... give me your number."
The sight was so absurd, a young man who had just ended a legendary witch that used a balance breaker of a Longinus is asking for a phone number, such human activities makes Azazel barked out a laugh.
"Hahaha... Don't bother with that," Azazel said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a polished, glowing communication crystal. He tossed it to Jay. "Use this. It's more reliable than a cell phone, you don't think a cellphone can reach another dimension, can't you?."
Jay speechless, but he is trying to cool it off.
"Just channel your mana into it and we should be good to go." Azazel said.
Jay caught the crystal, turning it over in his hand with a curious expression. "Alright. Tell me when she's awake."
With a sudden, violent flicker of purple embers, Jay vanished. There was no residue, no lingering presence as he disappeared in an instant.
"Who even is that guy?" Natsume asked, shivering. "His eyes... are scaryy."
Azazel looked at the spot where Jay had stood, then at the devastation surrounding them.
He knew he had a lot of paperwork ahead of him to keep the Shinto Factions and the Five Principal Clans off their backs, but for the first time in a long time, he felt a genuine spark of excitement.
"Let's just say... he's a friend of a friend," Azazel said vaguely.
But unbeknownst to everyone, a smirk creeping onto his face as he thought.
'But to think that four Longinus users gathered in one place... This era is getting very interesting.'